What Dreams are Made of

You know how it goes...every little boy and girl has dreams of what they want to be when they grow up.  They want to be a movie star, a firefighter, football hero, Princess, Ballarina, Policeman, President...you know, something BIG!  Who didn't play and imagine such things as a child? 

Well, apparently, me!

The other night I was chatting with my friend Chris on Facebook.  He was uncertain where he would be this summer break from school.  I told him to get a job here and get his tooshy HOME!  We then had the following conversation.

C: "I don't want to be there.  I want to go to Europe and teach English, or work on a sailing boat, or work at Disneyland."  (This kid is a DREAMER for sure)

Me: "Chris, you are the most random person I know." 

C: "Well, these are my unfulfilled dreams." "Don't you have any of those?"

Me: "Um, don't you know me be NOW?  I'm just not "crazy" like that."

C:  "Well no, you're just practical."

Me: "That's a nice way of putting it.  I mean really, do you want to know what I dreamed of being as a kid?" 

I dreamed of being a................................................wait for it................................................................



I said WAIT FOR IT...........................................................................................................................A







A SECRETARY.  And not just any secretary, a secretary named Janice.  Oh, and a Mom.  Those were my 2 dreams in life.

Chris nearly laughed himself into hysterics over that.  And really, I can see why.  I mean c'mon, WHO dreams of being a SECRETARY, AND having her name be Janice?  Seriously?  But I really did.  It's all i could think about.  I didn't often play house, or school...I played office.  I would take memos and type things and answer phones.

Perhaps it stems from the fact that my Dad owned his own business, and nothing was more exciting than going down to the shop and sitting at the front desk and maybe, just maybe getting to answer a phone call.  And then tattering away on the IBM selectric, pretending to be the fastest typist.  Truly, the stuff dreams were made of.

I didn't mess around in school either.  I took typing in 8th grade, and I rocked the manual typewriter (tragically, I am that old) with 60 words a minute.  But, that wasn't good enough, so I took it again in 9th grade, this time rockin the IBM electric typewriter.  Got up to 90+ words per minute.  Would have been best in the class, but damn that Helena Nielson and her piano playing fingers.  She JUST beat me out.  But people, I had a dream to fulfill........secretary (lest you forgot).

Wanna know what?  I DID become a secretary, receptionist, executive assitant, whatever.  And I was REALLY good at it.  Don't be a doubter...my data entry skillz were off the HOOK!  I could type 100+ words a minute, my mail opening ability..unparalleled.  Making copies, you better believe it!  But, my BEST ability...answering that phone.  I had MAD chops at that.  The people, they loved me!  I had customers that called sometimes, just to chat with me.  For all my grumpy looking face problems, I'm apparently a bubble fest on the phone.  Someday I'll write a whole post about Paul from a MAJOR customer (let's just say, you work out on all their eliptical machines at the gym) and the time he came to visit.  I loved being up front, greeting people, typing up invoices, filing, oh don't get me started..I totally dug THE FILING, the flirting (we had a couple of HOT artists at one point), I loved it all.  I worked in that capacity from the time I was 17 until I was 25ish (with brief stops in accounting and purchasing, NOT so much my favorite or forte).  At that point I transferred to ASU full time and couldn't work anymore.  I haven't set foot in an office ever since.  It seems like an entirely different lifetime ago, the typing, the filing, the office politicing, the attire. 

So yeah, I had a dream, and I totally fulfilled it.


Now what?


Good thing I've got these kids.



Toner cartridges and paper punches,

Allyson